Wednesday, March 30, 2011

So I was watching South Park online last night to unwind after a long day. Back to back there were two commercials for upcoming games. The first is the new Mortal Kombat, where if you pre-order at GameStop you can get Scorpion’s original costume from the first game. The second was for Portal 2, which was also a costume bonus that you can only get at one retailer and no where else.

Now some of you might say, so what? Why does this matter? The completionist side of me always hates that I can never fully finish a game. When I start something I have to finish it. That can be everything from an art project to an episode of a tv show. Including video games. Why? Because it unsettles me if I don’t finish something to it’s fullest extent. And because multiple retailers offer multiple pre-order in-game bonuses, unless you pre-order at every retailer, you can never really finish a game. And that blows.

I’m not talking about the bonuses where you get a hat or a t-shirt. I mean the bonuses that give you a weapon that you can’t get anywhere else in the game, or a costume that you can’t unlock for a character at any other time. I’m sure the response from some people is, “well, why don’t you pre-order the game at every retailer with a bonus?” My response is I don’t have $500 bucks to continually pre-order items and then return the 15 copies back for refunds. I shouldn’t have to go down that route in order to complete a game. I should be allowed to obtain those bonuses somewhere in the game through hard work. If I pre-order it and get the item earlier, cool. But if someone doesn’t pre-order, they should be able to have access to the item if they put time and effort into the game. A pre-order should be a bonus of getting the product earlier or something special before everyone else.

Tangible pre-order bonuses, cool. Feel free to throw more posters and keychains my way. I love my Phoenix Wright keychain and Katamari phone strap. But the in-game items just add annoyance to pre-ordering games. I can never fully achieve completion. So what if a costume is exclusive if you buy from a particular retailer? Unless you buy a copy of the game at every single shop with a bonus, you can never say you have truly finished the game. And that makes me a sad geek.

Apologies for the rambling. It just annoyed me last night when I was trying to relax. XD